In recent history, China has been invaded and humiliated by many great powers. From the beginning of 1840 to the founding of New China in 1949, both the Qing Dynasty, the Beiyang government and the Nationalist government signed more unequal treaties with foreign countries, of which the country that caused China to lose the most territory was Soviet Russia.
Let's first take a look at how Soviet Russia invaded Chinese territory!
1. In 1689, about 250,000 square kilometers of territory west of the Waixing'an Mountains and the Erguna River were ceded to Russia
In 1727, about 100,000 square kilometers of territory south and southwest of Lake Baikal were ceded to Russia
3. In 1790, Russia secretly annexed Sakhalin Island, an area of 100,000 square kilometers
4. In 1854, Russia annexed 140,000 square kilometers of territory in Xinjiang
5. During the Opium War, Russia invaded and occupied about 1.7 million square kilometers of China's territory
6. In 1921, the Soviet Union instigated the independence of Outer Mongolia and lost 1.56 million square kilometers of land
7. In 1944, the Soviet Union occupied 170,000 square kilometers of the Tangnu Ulyan Sea
In summary, Russia has lost a total of about 4.02 million square kilometers of territory to China in history
In 1949, when new China was founded, we declared: "Abolish almost all unequal treaties", so why didn't the Soviet Union return the territory that had occupied China during the Tsarist period?
Perhaps careful friends have noticed that our statement is "the abolition of almost all unequal treaties", not "all unequal treaties"! At that time, shortly after the end of World War II, the whole world pattern was reshuffled, the Chinese government had stopped paying all the reparations that had been incurred before, the great powers had lost their privileges in China, and they had become equal relations with China... However, there is always a special case, in addition to Soviet Russia there is an example of Hong Kong.
At that time, the Soviet Union had become the second most powerful country in the world, the United States implemented the Cold War policy, Stalin instilled great power chauvinism, the world was divided into two camps of imperialism and socialism, and New China belonged to the socialist camp.
In fact, the most fundamental reason why Soviet Russia did not return China's territory was that its comprehensive national strength was not strong enough.
Throughout the five thousand years of Chinese history, every inch of China's territory has not been sent at a charge. We must remember not only the good, but also the sin, not only the light, but also the darkness. History always hides evil and promotes good, and my generation needs to work hard to stay away from darkness and evil in the future.